...and so it began

so 2008 was going to be the year we relaxed. i was finally done with school, robby was happy and settled in his job, i finally had an income..... but that would be too easy. about 2 weeks into this new year, we decided we should look for a house to buy. we knew what we wanted: a fixer-upper in or near the same neighborhood we were already in. we want a house that is more modern than traditional, and that is often hard to find. "flipping" houses has become so popular that it seems every house you walk into has the same granite counter tops, fancy tile, and a lot of other "features" we didn't want.... it's just not our style. with a tight budget and very specific requirements, we quickly thought our search was hopeless.

but then... we pulled out of our driveway and saw it. 1110 Watauga St. just what we were looking for: a little post-war box ready to be modernized... and on our favorite street! (watauga... mere coincidence? we didn't think so.) we called our realtor and asked him to find out how much it was. as it turned out, we could afford it. the rest is a bit of a blur... on a sunday morning we went and looked at it. we knew right away what we had to do. but then came the nausea from that knowledge.... were we really going to buy a house? and with this house came a renovation and addition.... all the work we would do ourselves. again, just what we wanted, but oh the anxiety. so on monday february 18, we saw it again and put in an offer. (happy birthday to me!) the next day the offer was accepted, and it was official; we were under contract. set to close on march 28.

so now, we have a lot of decisions to make... i have a lot of drawings to do... robby has to study for his LEED exam for work! we have taken on a huge project that is going to take a lot of our energy, time, and money, but in the end it will hopefully be a project we can be extraordinarily proud of. we know it will not be easy, but we will both learn a lot in the process. and for us, that is the most exciting part of it all...

1110 watauga, the photo from the realtor site:

there will be more to come... i have done no less that 50 sketches of ideas for the addition. it evolves daily, it seems, and continues to grow outside our budget. (shocking, i know). we're running out of time to make decisions before this becomes a build-redesign-rebuild project.... which will really blow the budget. i hope this blog will hold me accountable and help me get some drawings done for our friends and family to see (and hopefully comment on!) so i can nail some things down. or it could just be yet one more distraction...